Date: 08 October 2007 21:30

MAKING IT YOUR BUSINESS TO RECYCLE

Waste chiefs in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough have been awarded a £213,000 
grant to help encourage companies to recycle trade and business waste.

 New regulations come into force on 30th October this year requiring all 
businesses to sort their waste into recyclable elements and to separate 
hazardous and non-hazardous waste.

B usinesses will also be penalised from April 1 next year as the landfill 
tax escalator will rise to £8 per tonne per year, taking the tax to £32 per 
tonne on all companies that dump waste without recycling.

To help companies understand the new regulations and taxes as well as their 
responsibilities in dealing with waste Cambridgeshire County Council has 
organised three training days for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The days are being held in conjunction with local training organisation 
Resource Saver and is aimed at businesses based in Cambridgeshire and 
Peterborough.

 At the training days there will be examples of best practice of how a 
number of SMEs have established waste reduction and recycling schemes, saved 
money, avoided fines and increased profits. Recycling also improved their 
profile with customers and local residents by managing their waste in an 
environmentally friendly way.

The RECAP partnership, a partnership of all councils in Cambridgeshire and 
Peterborough, has recently been awarded a Business Resource Efficiency and 
Waste programme (BREW) grant of £213,000 to help promote the recycling of 
trade and business waste in the area.

In the new National Waste Strategy released in May, the Government stated 
that it wanted to encourage local authorities to take on a wider role to 
help local businesses, and particularly small and medium enterprises, reduce 
and recycle their waste, and thus make cost savings in their business waste 
charges.

The training days are accredited by the Chartered Institute of Wastes 
Management and will be held on;
* 23rd October 2007 in Cambridge
* 4th December 2007 in Huntingdon
* 24th January 2008 in Peterborough

 They will cover all the important aspects of waste legislation, how to 
establish recycling collections and conduct waste audits to reduce waste and 
how to improve employees'awareness of the cost of waste. The County Council 
has used some of its BREW grant to subsidise the training days, and the cost 
will be only £50 per delegate.

Mark Shelton, Waste Policy Manager for Cambridgeshire County Council, said: 
"All councils in the RECAP partnership are taking our responsibility to help 
local businesses reduce the environmental and financial cost of their waste 
seriously. I would strongly advise SMEs to book a place on one of these
training days to find out more about cost effective and sustainable waste 
management. City and District councils are also beginning to offer local 
traders waste recycling services, and we will be releasing an information 
booklet and offering individual visits to SMEs to help with waste audits in 
the near future."

To book a place on any of the three training days contact Heidi Seary at 
Resource Saver; tel. 07966 450426 or 01223 411494 or e-mail heidi@crn.org.uk

John Reynolds